Running in place, high kicks combine for cardio detox workout

If you’re looking to detox your body or feeling a little sluggish after a big meal or night out, try out a cardio detox workout!

Sweating it out can not only make you feel good physically, but also make you feel more energized.

Detoxing, especially over the holidays, can help with weight management, too. And if you’re looking to burn calories quickly, you’ve found the right workout.

The following cardio workouts will burn almost 150 calories in 15 minutes. I recommend doing one of these forms of cardio 5 times a week for 15 minutes each, but keep in mind that doing it once is better than not doing it at all.

Running in Place

Brian Ernst/Sun-Times

For lower impact, you could simply walk or march in place. The idea here is to get the lower body moving and also to pump the arms as if you’re running as fast as you can!

If you are ready to run in place, make sure you put on your tennis shoes. Lightly run with the knees bent and arms moving as fast as you can in place. You’ll burn about 130 calories by running at a jogging pace, or a slower pace.

If you want to step it up and burn even more calories, you can run in place at a sprinting speed. If you sprint as fast as you can for a total of 15 minutes, you can burn up to 1,200 calories!

High Knees

Brian Ernst/Sun-Times

High Knees is another form of cardio that you can do in place. This will also help with hip mobility and strength.

March your right knee up as high as you can, and then place it down and march the left knee up as high as you can. As you start moving faster, try to keep the knees up as high as when you started. You can pick up the pace and even move into a higher-impact cardio workout by adding jumps.

Always land with softly bent knees and keep swinging your arms to get your heart rate up.

Butt Kicks

Instead of reaching the knees up toward your chest, you’ll be kicking your feet behind you to try and touch your bottom. This will help with hip flexor mobility and also can loosen up the quads.

Simply kick the right foot back toward your right glute, and then kick the left root back toward your left glute. Go slowly at first, and then pick up the pace. The faster you go, the more this may feel like you’re running in place; but remember that you’re doing butt kicks, not running. So keep reaching the feet toward the glutes with every step.

Stephanie Mansour wants you to “step up” your fitness regimen. Mansour coaches private clients in weight loss, provides fitness/health/lifestyles advice on national TV shows, and offers her free 21 Day Challenge online. Check out her fitness tips every Sunday in the Well section of the Chicago Sun-Times. And visit her website at stepitupwithsteph.com.